Character of structures: Differentiation and behaviour (SAS 2) Seminar By Manja van de Worp (2014) In this seminar we approach structural design through local and global behaviour, exploring 3D neighbourhoods of components. These neighbourhoods, i.e. the specific organisation of elements / components drive the character of structures, i.e. its structural behaviour. It is the definition and behaviour of the single component as well as how it is connected to its neighbour that enables the performance of a specific function within and as the whole.  In this context a character describes an a specific trait / performance, relating its particular organisation of elements to a particular place informing local and global behaviour of the total structural system. Our exploration in organisation of components aims to define 2 distinct structural characters using the properties of the components, and the organisation of elements that drives the manner in which our structure functions or operates, relying on both the local and global control. We explore the design of these two structural characters using both digital and physical experimentation. We will use Karamba to give us an idea of organisation and the global behaviour and use 1:1 physical component behaviour as the digital input digital component input. We finish the seminar with a 2 day workshop where in teams we will design and generate two structures (to scale) with a very specific character using the organisation of elements.